After the successful publication of his biography (1998) and his brilliant polar journal Farthest North (2000), Fridtjof Nansen has in the past years recaptured his reputation as ‘a modern Viking’ (Daily Mail) which he enjoyed a century ago. This book is an abridgement of the two volumes of journals he edited of his daring crossing of the icy, treacherous snow plains of Greenland. At the time, before his famous arctic journey, no one had ever succeeded in penetrating the depths of Greenland. His ideas for crossing, upwards with dogs which would be eaten on the way, and downwards by skiing, were received with scathing contempt as contemporary thinking favoured large expeditions with numerous servants for survival.